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Altiscale and QuakeFinder Announce Strategic Partnership for Earthquake Forecasting Research

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 26, 2016) - Altiscale, the leading provider of Big-Data-as-a-Service, and QuakeFinder, a humanitarian research and development project to forecast earthquakes, today announced a strategic partnership to analyze QuakeFinder's large scientific data set to uncover correlations between earth-emitting electromagnetic signals and earthquakes. The goal of this project is to enable an earthquake forecasting system that provides days to weeks of advance notice of major earthquakes, ultimately saving lives.

QuakeFinder is among a growing group of international scientists and researchers seeking to understand the earth's electromagnetic activity in the weeks prior to major earthquakes. Since 2005, QuakeFinder has developed and deployed a network of 165 sensors along fault lines in California, Chilé, Peru, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Greece. Based on the theory that rock near its fracture point releases electrical energy, QuakeFinder's remote stations employ highly sensitive magnetometers to collect Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) magnetic disturbances resulting from electrical pulses near the future earthquake hypocenter. QuakeFinder has amassed approximately 70 terabytes (TB) of data, including detailed data from over 140 earthquakes. QuakeFinder is a "moon-shot" initiative sponsored by Stellar Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of aerospace-related engineering services to the commercial and government sectors.

"QuakeFinder is entering an exciting new stage in the quest to provide the scientific foundation for early warnings of major earthquakes. Now that sensor systems have been deployed in major earthquake zones, QuakeFinder is turning its attention from earthquake data collection to large-scale statistical analyses and algorithm development," said Celeste Ford, CEO of Stellar Solutions. "The massive volume of sensor data and the complex signal processing techniques involved in determining relevant electromagnetic patterns make a Big Data computing solution an absolute necessity. Altiscale was a natural partner for us, since they not only offer a high-performance cloud Hadoop environment, but they also include full ongoing operational services. This allows us to focus on developing quake detection algorithms without getting bogged down in the concerns of Big Data infrastructure or operations."

"The advent of mass sensor technology and Big Data analytics have the ability to dramatically improve manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, and more, in what is broadly known as the internet of things," said Raymie Stata, CEO, Altiscale. "QuakeFinder is using these technologies to achieve the humanitarian goal of advance notification for major earthquakes. We are honored to be able to assist them in their mission, and Altiscale hopes to greatly accelerate QuakeFinder's research efforts."

Enterprises are increasingly turning to the Apache Hadoop ecosystem to handle their data challenges with efficiency, affordability, and speed. However, Hadoop environments can be difficult to set up and operate successfully over time, especially as implementations scale. According to a leading industry analyst firm, seven of 10 Hadoop implementations will fail to meet their business objectives due to challenges like these. Altiscale eliminates these barriers by offering rapid deployment, a high-performance environment, and ongoing operational support to ensure performance over time.

About AltiscaleAltiscale, a provider of Big Data as a Service, helps businesses to maximize the value of their data quickly and easily, without the challenge and expense of managing complex technologies on their own. Altiscale offers "concierge cloud" services, with full Big Data operations services included for every customer. The combination of a secure, scalable big data platform, dedicated operations services, and a passion for results means that Altiscale customers experience performance that is up to 10x faster than alternatives. Altiscale customers include leading companies across financial services, media, marketing services, AdTech, and gaming.

About QuakeFinderQuakeFinder is a Palo Alto-based humanitarian research and development effort dedicated to saving lives by forecasting earthquakes. Comprised of engineers, data scientists, and computer scientists, the team is pursuing a non-traditional technique to provide days-to-weeks of advanced warning for major earthquakes. QuakeFinder is sponsored by Stellar Solutions, Inc., an engineering services company providing end-to-end technical expertise and problem-solving skills to significant national and international aerospace programs, including defense-related intelligence projects, international telecommunications satellites, commercial imagery satellites and NASA's planetary and earth science missions. Please visit www.quakefinder.com for more information or follow us on Twitter @quakefinder.